“king of the bog rolls” never existed.
All this talk of a culture creeping into the game here from all these foreign players of diving and it being a new thing here seems to gloss over the contribution of Franny Lee to English football. Our first and possibly greatest diver, slightly tapped on the half way line Franny would do his best to win a penalty – so well pointed out in the pic a card game from the 70s – obviously one of the reasons he kept the weight on for extra cushioning for the fall.
And as for another Shearer whinge, when he falls over after fouling a defender trying to con the ref into giving Toon a free kick is this not diving ?
Yes the foreigners are “better” at it than us – Drogba’s against Newcastle was far more elaborate than Wright-Phillips, but then Del Horno avoided the tackle slipped fell on his arse and never claimed, never shouted in pain (Viera style) not exactly a classic dive though Toon players where happy to make the most of it in a somewhat unsportsmanlike way. But we can’t forget that Savage is a master of the art and the likes of Steven Gerrard aren’t afraid to fall over when they’ve never been touched.
And it’s funny how the media don’t complain about a certain *cough*French*cough* North London club who can and do dive from front to back.
I suppose there has been a culture change though, when Jurgen came over here a lot was made of his diving – my god he had some classics – but he changed his ways, others don’t seem to bother now.
Now Whinging Wenger says he wants divers banned
but of course only when it’s not his players
Is that because he wouldn’t want Lehmann, Pires, Lauren, Henry, Reyes etc etc banned 🙄
Don’t forget Cole, that unluckiest of players who always seems to stumble into the firing-line of the inevitable crack sniper on the terraces…
Apparently Franny Lee was wrongly assumed by many to be the first Korean player in the English league, since so many City match reports featured the scorer “Lee Pen”…
Oh, and the makers of that card game appear a little biased against North London in all its forms, judging by the Alan Ball and Martin Peters cards against all the others…
Should have had “Stupid White Boots” miss a turn on Ball’s.
They did something with Joe Harper’s card, or it looks like sucking your cheeks in makes you lose a few hundred pounds of excess flab cause I didn’t recognise him.